Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Joseph Webb McKnight, 1925-2015

We have received sad news: Joseph Webb McKnight, Professor Emeritus of Law and Larry and Jane Harlan Faculty Fellow Emeritus at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, passed away on November 30, 2015. SMU has released the following:

Professor McKnight inspired many through his historic contributions to
the development of family and matrimonial property law in Texas, as well
as his scholarship on legal history. He was a prolific scholar,
authoring over 100 articles and several books. He held leadership
positions in a number of legal and historical organizations, directed
the Texas Family Code project, and was a principal drafter of several
important Texas laws addressing matrimonial property matters, including
the property rights of married women in Texas. In the words of one
colleague, Joe McKnight is legal history.

“We lost our patron saint, our living link to the very beginning of
modern family law in Texas,” said Brian L. Webb, adjunct professor at
SMU Dedman School of Law and attorney with Webb Family Law Firm, P.C.
“He was a great friend to all and proud to be a family lawyer.”

After a short stint practicing law with Cravath Swaine & Moore in
New York City, he joined the faculty of the SMU School of Law in 1955,
where he taught for the following 59 years. While a dedicated scholar
and advocate for legal reform, his true love was for teaching and law
students, with many of the latter remaining life-long colleagues and
friends. Professor McKnight and his wife, Mildred Payne McKnight, were
known to entertain a tremendous number of law students, faculty,
scholars and friends in their Dallas home and, during many summers, in
their house in Oxford.

During the past six decades, Professor McKnight established an
invaluable collection of more than 6,000 rare legal history books at SMU
Dedman Law – one of the largest of its kind in the nation with the
oldest book in the collection printed in 1481. He studied bookbinding
and book conservation at the Dallas Craft Guild for more than twenty
years, so he could restore his cherished antiquarian volumes to the best
possible condition. In December 2011, he donated his extraordinary
collection to the law school, which is prominently housed in SMU Dedman
law’s Underwood Law Library.

“Joe McKnight was a truly remarkable teacher and scholar and a
wonderfully kind and generous colleague,” said Jennifer M. Collins,
Judge James Noel Dean and Professor of Law at SMU Dedman School of Law.
“Throughout his distinguished academic career, he was an inspiration to
all who knew him. He will be greatly missed.”

He was born on February 17, 1925 in San Angelo, Texas, where he was
raised during some of the most severe years of the Great Depression.
Notwithstanding the tough times, he loved San Angelo and he and his
four siblings returned there often and spoke proudly of their West Texas
roots.

He excelled academically at an early age and graduated at the top of his
high school class at the age of 16. After completing several years at
the University of Texas, where he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity,
he enlisted in the Navy and served during and in the aftermath of World
War II. After returning to his studies at the University of Texas, he
was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and in 1947 entered Magdalen College at
Oxford University. His Oxford years were formative, and he earned the
degrees of Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence, a Bachelor of Civil Law,
and a Master of Arts. He also received an LL.M. from Columbia
University.

The Professor was preceded in death by his parents and siblings, as well
as his first wife, Julia Ann Dyer McKnight. He is survived by his
second wife, Mildred Payne McKnight, his sons John B. McKnight and J.
Adair McKnight, his step-children, Sawnie R. Aldredge III and Amy P.
Aldredge, and numerous grandchildren.

A mass of Christian burial will be held at the Church of The Holy Cross
Dallas, 4052 Herschel Avenue (at Douglas) at 10:00 am on Friday,
December 4, 2015. In lieu of flowers, donations are requested in
Professor McKnight’s honor either to the Joseph P. McKnight Memorial
Scholarship Fund (named in honor of Professor McKnight's Great
Grandfather) at the SMU Dedman School of Law, or to the Church of The
Holy Cross Dallas.

We expect that there are more tributes and remembrances to come. We will update you accordingly.

1 comment:

Peter Reich
said...

Joe McKnight was a wonderful mentor and friend. His work on the Hispanic influence on Texas civil procedure and family law, and lawbooks on the frontier has never been superseded. Joe gave freely of his time to read drafts for myself and many others, and remains an example of the engaged academic applying scholarship to problems on the ground. His insightfulness, grace, and generosity will be missed. Peter Reich, Whittier Law School.